Century Plaza Cinemas

This was a great theatre in the 70's and Early 80's. HUGE main auditorium with a walk up balcony. Event movies like JAWS, STAR WARS and THE RIGHT STUFF opened there. It was ruined by Cineplex Odeon in the late 80's and is scheduled to close soon and be raised. :-(

Opened in spring 1972 as a ABC theater. "Cabaret" was the first movie booked. It played in Theater #2, the larger of the two. The only way to access the auditorium was a steep flight of stairs. Many times we ushers had to lift and carry terrified wheel chaired bound patrons up and down those steps. Whoever was booking that placed had a rather difficult time finding anything to play in the smaller theater. The Movie of the Week "Brian's Song" played there for a couple of weeks to consistent empty houses. A Orson Wells narrated documentary also was shown. I was part of the opening staff, my first job. Worked there a whole five months until they laid off the entire male staff. Two years later I received a settlement check from a class action suit from that. I saw "Jaws" there on opening day.
Regarding Bradley's previous comment, "Star Wars' opened at the Avco in Westwood and Chinese in Hollywood.

The Plitt Century Plaza engagement of "Star Wars" in 70MM 6 Track Dolby Stereo Sound started July 6th, 1977.

Room one and Room two were beautiful rooms, especially because they were NOT stadium seating. If I had won the big 200 or 300 million "Powerball" lottery I would have bought the ABC Entertainment Center (which the cinema was part of) and saved the theater. It's a piece of history that will be sorely missed.

After the conversion to four screens the main screen (800 seat room) at the Century Plaza was 70MM THX Dolby Stereo equipped and the former main room was equipped for 70MM HPS-4000 Stereo and the two smaller rooms were equipped for 35mm HPS-4000 stereo. The HPS-4000 system still uses a Dolby Cinema processor.

After the conversion to four screens the main screen (800 seat room) at the Century Plaza was 70MM THX Dolby Stereo equipped and the former main room was equipped for 70MM HPS-4000 Stereo and the two smaller rooms were equipped for 35mm HPS-4000 stereo. The HPS-4000 system still uses a Dolby Cinema processor.

The Century Plaza had problems for many years because of the Westwood booking zone which wouldn't play day and date with Century City. In later years AMC Century 14 was built and Century City could now play the same film as Westwood but the Century 14 had more booking muscle and a better location with free parking. The Century Plaza hosted many film premieres but wasn't able to play the film they premiered. I liked the Century Plaza but it was very under used.It was built to host exclusive run films which was on the way out and never able to compete with Westwood and Century City 14.brucec

One of the things I loved about this theater was it's so beautiful, it even made going to lesser movies an event. I couldn't tolerate Alien 3, Diabolique (the remake), Flesh And Bone, and several others in a cheap theater, but at the Century Plaza they were still fun nights for me regardless of the quality of those films. And as for watching good or even great movies there, oh my God, I was in movie heaven. I'll never forget watching the re-release of Blade Runner in 1992, after ten years of watching it on video I finally got to experience it in a great cinema. If only there was some way to save it from demolition *sigh*.

I'm from the east coast, but I happened to catch STAR WARS here in July of 1977. It was my first and only visit to that theatre and it was a most memorable one. A truly optimum presentation of that movie.

When "Chicago" was playing on the weekends, the main room was packed wall-to-wall. I remember one Saturday in particular, and the trailers before the movie included "Le Divorce", "View From The Top", and "How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days". I saw that room packed with happy people having a good time and thinking why oh WHY couldn't this last forever. When Chicago left and they started showing things like the remake of "The Italian Job" and "League Of Extraordinary Gentleman" I stayed away, because I wanted to remember it for that last really good night I had there.

This place had the most comfortable chairs of all time. I wish I had been around to visit when it seated 1400!

Just to put an update here, it's no longer "soon to be demolished", it IS demolished. There's nothing left but the metal skeleton of the place (they are taking it down piece-by-piece), and even that will be gone very soon.

What, in their great wisdom, are they going to build on this site to replace the theatre? Wasn't this site originally the backlot of one of the studios, possibly Fox? [20th CENTURY Fox = CENTURY Plaza]

This theater will always have a warm place in my heart. I would take the bus from the San Gabriel valley (too young to drive) all the way out to the Century Plaza to see "Star Wars". They ran it in 70mm for what seemed like eternity. I saw it there in the main auditorium at least 10 times! Even TRAILERS were "an event" there! The ones that stick out were the 70mm trailer for "Jaws 2", and "Best Little Whorehouse". I was very sad to hear it's gone. Before it was 4-lexed, this was hands-down the best show in L.A., and an important piece of my history.

The Los Angeles film festival "Filmex" used this theater in the early 1980s. It was a classy venue, and I'm very sad to read of its demolition. What is going to be built on its site?

This complex was built on the former backlot of 20Th Century-Fox. The Fox studio was second in size only to Universal before the backlot was redeveloped. The Fox studio sat on very expensive real estate sitting between Beverly Hills and the Westwood area of West LA.The former backlot was sold due to the cost overruns on "Cleopatra" which eventually showed a profit and nearly put Fox out of business. The backlot was developed into Century City which became one of the most sought after office space in LA. The ABC Entertainment Center which comprised the Shubert and Century Plaza along with a mall was never very successful. The Shuberts had to spend money a few times remodelling the Shubert to get it right. The Shubert at least had a few successful long runs. The Century Plaza only was successful during the exclusive run era and even then they had to play second fiddle to Westwood and also the AMC Century 14.brucec

I saw "Gandhi" at the Century Plaza when it was the Plitt Century Plaza. I came a second time around 1990 to see a re-release of "Sparticus" when the theater was operated by Cineplex. I remember from my second trip to the Century Plaza that they sold beer. As far as I know this was unique to the Century Plaza among theaters in the Los Angeles area at that time.
During the 1960s when Century City was developed Downtown, Los Angeles was losing out to West Los Angeles as the center of the city for business and culture. This was underscored by the building of the Century Plaza Cinemas and the nextdoor Schubert Theater. The Welton Beckett designs of Century City are truly iconic to this period. Now the trend has reversed. The movement is back to downtown and is highlighted by the demolition of both of these facilities.

I was just in Los Angeles this past weekend and can confirm that,
indeed the Century Plaza is history. Not only the movie theater,
but the Shubert also. In fact, the entire ABC Entertainment Center
is nothing but a big hole in the ground! Anyone have a clue what
will be taking it's place?

The new headquarters of CAA (Creative Artists Agency) is to be constructed on the site of the former ABC Entertainment Center.

Will this headquarters contain any movie theaters or live stages?

Unfortunately no Ron.

There are no plans for any theatre at all. AMC is building a new Century City 15 plex about two blocks down in the mall next to Macy's. This will be the prime theatre.

The Schubert group was in talks to take over another theatre but I have not heard of what happened.

Century City is not actually a city, but merely the name of the development. It is inside the corporate limits of the City of Los Angeles.

"This theater will always have a warm place in my heart. I would take the bus from the San Gabriel valley all the way out to the Century Plaza to see "Star Wars". They ran it in 70mm for what seemed like eternity." (mattepntr, Oct 9, 2004)
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The Century Plaza's "Star Wars" engagement ran from 6 July 1977 - 12 Apr 1978 and 8 May 1978 - 7 Sep 1978. The theater interrupted their first-run showings during 13 Apr - 7 May 1978 so they could host the annual FILMEX festival.

Does anyone have any photos of this theater, especially
the lobby and auditoriums before it was multiplexed? If
you do, please send me a message. I'd appreciate it!

Sorry, I have no before photos. But here are some closing weekend pictures:
http://www.cinematour.com/tour.php?db=us&id=2112

Thanks for the pictures, Mark. I've always regretted not taking any myself during the final year.

The ABC Century Plaza Theatre opened on April 5th 1972 with "Cabaret".

I worked for a couple of months at the Shubert Theatre, running spotlight for the show "Ragtime", and sometimes on matinee days I'd go over to the Century Plaza and catch a piece of a movie between shows. I loved the Shubert - what a great theatre to work in! The stage door corridor adjoined a property that I was told was the old original Playboy Club. I didn't know that until the show loaded out and we used the space that had formerly been the club to store road cases and equipment before loading it onto the trucks.

The Shubert had an interesting apparatus to bring workers to the gridiron - it was a motorized endless belt with steps that ran the 80-something feet from stage floor to grid. You'd grab one tread with your hand and step on a lower one with your feet, and ride the endless belt up to the grid, then be sure yo stepped off at the right time. It was pretty amazing, and exhilarating to ascend on this thing!

Too bad these 2 theatres are gone!

I unfortunately only made it to one film here before it was torn down. Terrible film (Below), great theatre. I remember not actually believing that a theatre existed there-- it was on the bottom floor of the most corporate and stoic building complex imaginable, and parking was impossible to figure out. I was expecting the worst-- but couldn't believe how enormous the place was. I would have seen more films here if I had known... The screens and auditoriums rivaled the size of the westwood screens.

And you only saw the old main house cut up into 3 screens. The old main house was a Great place to see a movie.

I think this is where they filmed exterior shots for "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" ?

This was a fantastic Theatre in its day. I remember seeing JAWS opening day June 20, 1975 at the Plitt Century Plaza. It, like the Avco lost its lustre when they chopped the large house into smaller screens. I think the last film I saw in the BIG Plitt Screen was the 1986 Hanks-Gleason film NOTHING IN COMMON. A year later Cineplex Odeon chopped it up. It was the begining of the end for Large Movie Theatre complexes.

The large screen at the old Plitt was alittle like the Loews Astor Plaza in NYC. Another lost complex in Times Square.

Here is a 1972 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/2wnjt8

The ad says "ABC City Theatre One". So this theatre started out with a different name?

I believe so.

At the time it was built it was operated by the ABC Theatres, which was taken over by Henry Plitt, who was subsequently taken over by Cineplex Odeon. The original signage on the building read "ABC Entertainment Center".

Dave-bronx is right on the operating chains of the house.

Here is an August 1973 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/2kpake

Live and Let Die was released in June of 1973.

The Hollywood Blvd. run of "Live and Let Die" played the Chinese and the when it left the Century Plaza house the move-over was to the Picwood Theatre.

This movie theatre brings back so many memories of my teen years in the late 70's. My dad used to drop us off there and we'd go see a movie. dont remember all the films I saw there, but it was between 1978 and 1980. It was the first theatre I remember being so luxurious. They had red chairs which rocked/reclined and a huge screen. After the movie we'd go to the Cultured Cow for a yougurt drink.

i saw many movies at the plitt as a kid growing up in l.a. and then later as a film critic going to press screenings. but the highlight of my cinematic experiences going to the plitt was seeing the empire strikes back in 1980 with my aunt lisa. empire strikes back was my favorite of the original trilogy and the magic of seeing it at the plit is ingrained in my mind. the main theater was really luxurious and really exceptional for seeing any of the old widescreen/cinemascope epics. i saw lawrence of arabia and the sound of music there in revival. i also recall seeing playboy bunnies in full bunny regalia walking around the century plaza property (there was a playboy club there), seeing mohammed ali and larry holmes box an exhibition match in the center of the courtyard, and seeing my first play/musical - annie - at the shubert. it was quite shocking to drive by the site a year or two ago and see it was completely demolished and new building had begun. ahhhh, memories.

Was that "Empire Strikes Back" screening a special/press screening or a the regular release engagement?

empire strikes back regular engagement - a matinee, probably midweek. i don't recall too many people in there.

The two main First Run 70MM engagements was the Avco in Westwood and Egyptian in Hollywood. Fox did a re-issue of the film on July 31st. 1981 at the Plitt Century Plaza in 70MM.

i didn't see the film in the large theater so i don't think it was 70mm. and i know i didn't wait a year to go see empire strikes back - i was too big a star wars fan for that.

Both houses were 70MM equipped.

well maybe i saw the reissue there. maybe it was my second time seeing it. i dont know. i have a good memory but i was 10 or 11 so i can't say i recall every little detail. i do know i saw it there. so if it was 1981 vs 1980 no big deal.

One of my favorite threatre ever when it was the two-screen Plitt Century Plaza. High-backed rocking seats and legroom to stretch your legs out. Saw Star Wars, Poltergiest, Ghandi in 70MM 6-track Dolby magnificence. Brilliant gigantic curved screens and palatial lobby. Really missed it when Cineplex/Odeon hacked it into four screens, and now it's all gone forever.

To an earlier poster, sorry if it has been answered, the ABC Entertainment Center which contained the Plitt Theatres, Shubert Theatre and the twin triangular towers was meant to resemble a movie theatres seating area while the next-door Century Plaza Hotel with its curvilinear shape was meant to resemble a wide screen screen. Yes it was all built on 20th Century Fox's former backlot, hence the name 'Century City'. One of the latter Planet of the Apes films was even shot here due to the modern style of the architecture. Many a premiere was held here as well as opening nights at the adjacent Shubert Theatre and patrons would walk through the tunnel beneath Avenue of the Stars to attend the parties at the Century Plaza Hotel.

The Century Plaza Hotel may also be slated for demolition, according to an article in the LA Times a few days ago. A developer wants to build a megacomplex on the site.

Me again, the ABC Entertainment Center also includen the Los Angeles location of the Playboy Club. I also remember when the Los Angeles International Film Exhibition (FILMEX) was headquartered there they showcased Once Upon A Time in America. Unfortunately this was I believe the Ladd Companys cut and stripped version and had quite mixed reviews. Years later it was released in the original 3 hour plus version to great acclaim. Too little too late. The Plitt Century Plaza was simply the greatest Los Angeles threatre ever. I had seen Star Wars in a local 'masking tape and cardboard' theatre earlier but one day my sister and mom went to see A Chorus Line at the Shubert and I went to see Star Wars again, this time in 70mm 6 Track Dolby and I have never been the same.

Two of my favorite LA Movie Theatres are long gone now and the PLITT was one of them (the National in Westwood is the other). Saw JAWS there (5 times)among many others. The last movie I saw in the large theatre (before it was chopped up) was the director's cut of ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA. What a great experience, in those bouncy red chairs with the tall backs. One day, in 1991, I was working on a movie and the lead actress got sick and the crew was released early for the day. I was happy I could go to the (now) AMC to see an early bird showing of DANCES WITH WOLVES. The movie was $4. The parking was $36!

I saw many movies at this theater: Midnight Run, Powaquaatisi, Lawrence of Arabia,etc. I always remember the fact that there was no parking (or at least no cheap parking--I would park at the shopping center across the way and walk over), they had a bar that sold beer and wine to bring into the theater, and there was a strip club downstairs in the former Playboy Club.

No parking is an understatement. Whoever designed Century City made it equally difficult to walk to any point or to drive and find a place to park. Diabolical.

Is parking the only thing that you worry about?

No, I worry about global warming, Darfur, the economy, if the Phillies are going to repeat as champions. Parking is in there somewhere but low on the list.

Try worrying more about nonsense comments!

You asked me a question. How did you want me to reply?

Your funny. I'll turn off the email notification for this theater so I won't have read anymore of this nonsense. Thanks.

Wow somebody is grumpy. I too used to walk from the Century City mall over to the theater. I was pretty good at shortcuts - I could weave my way through the underground parking structure and come out and the perfect place above ground. It definitely was part of the experience :-)

Maybe there should be a button that says "Rhetorical Question-Do Not Answer".

Okay, I'm game. Let's play clutter up the theater listings. Maybe there should be a counter that states when you've reached your nonsense comments for the day.

LM, I don't know where you're located, but here in LA, the car is king. If you can't drive there and park easily, a lot of people just won't go. Many great neighborhood theaters suffer for this reason.

I never had trouble parking at Century City when I used to live in Santa Monica. I'd just walk over to the cinema from the mall garage. This cinema was also easy to reach by bicycle from Santa Monica.

i don't think the issue with the movie theater was lack of parking - it was that the parking at the abc entertainment complex was pricey during the day. for a long time the century city mall parking was free (and then after that i think just a dollar for something like 4 hours parking) - so of course those of us that didn't want to spend the extra $, just walked over from one mall to another.

don, i don't know if the LM you are referring to is me or Lost Memory? if it's me - i grew up in the valley and west hollywood and currently live in encino. pretty much any movie theater in the valley is a cinch to park at (and totally free) compared to anything "over the hill" in the city. but lack of parking doesn't seem to stop people from going to the cheapie or independent theaters around town (the fairfax springs to mind).

Oops! I was referring to Lost Memory... Not to belabor the whole parking issue that bugs him, but I'm in Santa Monica, and most of the side streets are restricted parking. That doesn't leave many options if you want to go to the NuWilshire (before it closed) or the Aero. It really forced them back into what they started as -- neighborhood theaters.

As much as I love Grauman's main, the actual Dome, and the Village, nothing will ever compare to the Plitt Twin. Star Wars, Ghandi, The Right Stuff, Poltergeist, all on 70mm 6-track Dolby with reclining seats and a yard or two of legroom will never be restored. Cineplex/Odeon absolutely destroyed modern movie-going. Even other houses like the original Egyptian, Fox Venice etc... are sorely missed in these days.

As another sidenote to my just posted message, I especially miss the passing of Mann's National in Westwood. My favorite movie house after the Plitt Century City. Very sad every time I'm in Westwood and see it as a fenced-off weed strewn vacant lot. Oh the memories!

this was a fantastic theater. remember seeing many movies there when i was in high school.

Agreed. I only saw the Century Plaza as a Cineplex Odeon quad, but the National will always be my favorite LA theatre for presentation.

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